The Kazakh World Tour team Astana can next season have three Danes on the team. Jakob Fuglsang is a prominent rider in the team and team manager Alexandre Vinokourov is interested in both Jesper Hansen and Michael Valgren, both of whom are part of Tinkoff.

“These are two good riders, I would like to have on the team. Nothing is agreed yet, but we are negotiating with their agents, and I think the negotiations are going well," Vinokourov told Ekstra Bladet before the start of the first stage of the Tour de France.

“Jesper Hansen is a good climber, we can benefit greatly from the mountains, and Valgren is a rider who can be very important for us along with Alexey Lutsenko in the classics. I hope that we reach an agreement with both riders before the Tour is over.”

According to Ekstra Bladet Hansen was wanted by Alberto Contador to be on his Tour team, but Tinkoff managament decided otherwise as they think he has already signed with Astana.

“I can only say that I am very close to signing a contract with a World Tour teams,” says Jesper Hansen by phone from Denmark. He stresses that he has spoken with several potential employers.

Michael Valgren would not answer any questions when asked by Dabnish TV ahead of the Tour’s first stage. Fuglsang was, however, willing to hand out advice on his team. He has heard about his team boss' interest for the two Danes, but he does not know how far negotiations have come.

“Both Jesper and Michael have since asked for my advice, and I have spoken positively about the team. I do not know where things are, but I hope that there will be more Danes to the team. It would be great,” said Fuglsang on stage one of the Tour.